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Archive for category A Year Without Spending

The Ultimate Saving – Moved to Scotland

Jul 3

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Well the year of not spending kind of took a nose dive. I did replace a laptop with a shiny new Samsung N110 and I did by the Land Rover I was saving for when starting this year without spending, however I do consider each purchase a lot more carefully before committing to buy. To continue the trend of saving and not spending, Vicki & I decided to move to Scotland. luckily we have a family owned property with space available to us, so we have moved into it. This means we pay no rent, and very little in bills. Also the Insurance is all taken car of, so the savings in living costs are around £900 a month. We are putting this, and any spare cash we make towards paying off our debt.

We are also saving like mad to buy a camper van for touring round Europe in 2010. Hopefully going to spend at least a year on the road, and it should be a once in a lifetime kinda gig. There is a motorhome dealership a few miles away from our new home, and we have already tried and tested a few. Exciting times.

Well we have been living the good life since moving up to Scotland over a week ago. Walks on the beach in the evening, and even strawberry picking this morning. Love it. Checkout the pictures below for a taster of our latest shenanigans.

A Year Without Spending – Day 31-41 – Ten Days off from the blog, much to report.

Feb 17

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Well like I say, it’s been 10 whole days since my last post on here. I’ve had loads of stuff to do over the past few weeks which has included saving heavily for our Landrover (we got rid of our spanking new car at the beginning of the year in favour of getting a quality used car). This was for two reasons, firstly the new car thing just wasn’t us, whilst we had no trouble with it, and it was great to drive, it just didn’t suit us, and the depreciation was becoming sickening. Secondly, we are planning on travelling around Scotland this summer, and we need something a little more rugged than a VW, so the Land Rover it is. The not spending has allowed us to put a lot of money aside for the Land Rover and it will be great to buy it eventually (note at the start of this thing I Stated that we would buy a car this year, and it was exempt from the experiment).

well what have I been upto. On Friday we where in Manchester to see the Defenders of the Faith II tour and one of my favourite bands Lamb Of God. It was an amazing night, but a punch in the guts in many respects. For one, the train cost a fortune. As we couldnt get a return to manchester from St Helens (go figure) we essentially had to get 4 single tickets. This cost us £30 for a 30 mile journey. To put it in perspective to go 30 miles in the other direction to liverpool would have cost us £7 return. After going days and days without spending a single penny, this cost was excessive, and almost enough for me to write it off and come home without going to the gig, but hell, we work hard we deserve a night out.

So into Manchester, and what a shock. It was like venturing into a parallel universe as opposed to the city we lived in for 7 years. The people where all about the fashion, it was so overcrowded, and the money being spent was insane.

The cost of everything got to me that day, the cost of a 2 minute taxi ride and entry into a club to meet our friends £10, a light snack £4, a pint of beer £3. The cost of city living has skyrocketed and it’s only when you step back and away from it you realise how absurd the whole thing is. We both hated the city for that day we spent there, we have either outgrown it or it has outgrown us! The only saving graces where that the bands where great, and Lee & Rachel where awesome, and their appartment was superb. Lee also grabbed us meal deal vouchers for Pizza Express so we all had starters, main courses and beer, and the total bill came to £40 for 4 people. Awesome.

I’m still not spending, and now I’m 41 days in give or take, it feels no different. I was almost tempted at the prospect of building a media centre PC. I resisted, dug out my old xboxs, and a few old Hard Drives and set them all up with XBMC. So now I have 3 working Media Centres, all networked and ready to go. Result & recycling!

I’ll start posting again properly for the next few weeks, just been a crazy busy time of late.

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A Year Without Spending – Day 28-30 – Liverpool trip & Podcasts

Feb 7

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Thursday saw us taking a train to Liverpool to see some ‘capital of culture’ culture. When we lived in St Helens when I was younger and more handsome we would take the train to Liverpool all the time, but since moving to Scotland & Manchester for the better part of 7 years Liverpool fell out of favour with our more ‘Cosmopolitan’ tastes in cities. Vicki & I both remarked on the train that it must be 6 years since we took the train to liverpool, which is a long time for someone who used to spend every day in the city.

We where pretty shocked that the train fare hadn’t chaged in all these years, and was still £3.60 return which is excellent. On arrival at Liverpool lime Street we quickly moved out of the cold and into the Walker Art Gallery. I was really impressed with the collection they have, but can’t help feeling a lot of the stuff in there has been sent to bolster the collection for the capital of culture crap. Anyways we saw the really famous painting of Henry VIII which was a highlight to me as I always remember that iconic image from History texts. They had some pretty good sculptures in there too.

Next we moved onto the Liverpool Museum which was amazing. All the time Vicki lived & went to University in Liverpool, the museum was behind a shroud of scaffold and wood. It has now re-opened with a pretty amazing collection and an equally impressive building. Notable parts of the museum where the aquarium and the insect house. All in all it was a good museum and on par with anything we have seen in London r New York.

After the museum Vicki treated me to a chicken ramen at a noodle bar. She has a chicked curry and we had a great meal and a nice relax before jumping on the train and heading home. The whole day including the meal cost us £25 between the two of us. We took our own snacks and a ton of water in our Sigga bottles which saved us a fortune on the usual expensive snacks.

Today, my friend Steven Almond drove me upto his workshop. The workshop is a couple of miles from where we live and is located on a working farm. The workshop is looking pretty damn impressive with a terrific array of machinery and materials. Ste is starting a furniture restoration & manifacturing business, so it was great to see where everything will be made. I feel a website coming on! Anyway the trip out was good, and it was nice to relax in a tranquil agricultural setting for a while. Check out the pictures below, taken on the iPhone so not the highest resolution, but still good. That was another free trip and made a nice change.

Right enough for today. i’m still not buying stuff, and its actually getting easier. If I hit any bmps int he road you readers will be the first to know. Now the pictures.

A Year Without Spending – Day 21-24 – Old Friends & No Spending on anything but food

Feb 1

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Faerie Glen Scotland - Magical Countryside

Faerie Glen Scotland - Magical Countryside

Sorry it has been a few days since I last posted on the ‘year without spending’ project, it has been a busy weekend meeting up with old friends and then recovering from the meet up. Our good friends Lee & Rachel from Manchester came over on Friday night, and we ended up in the local pub until we got kicked out. It was a heavy night for Vicki & I who aren’t used to having a few drinks any more and got quite intoxicated. It was a really fun night, and we paid the price for it on Saturday. Mostly staying in our pyjamas for the day and watching crap TV from under a blanket, we couldn’t go out like that on a regular basis any more.

With regards the not spending, I’m on day 24 of the project now and I’m still enjoying the whole thing. We discussed it the other night in the pub, and my close friends seem to have cut their spending along with me. We couldn’t work out if this was in sympathy for me and my not spending, or if it was because they felt inspired or compelled to cut back, either way it was great to hear.

Now that I’m 100% healthy again, the spending on medicine has stopped, and fingers crossed I’ll stay healthy for the rest of the year as I’m rarely ill. This leaves my only expenses as food & drink, Housing costs and utility bills. These things alone seem to cost a fortune, but the not spending (which has rubbed off on Vicki, although not to the extent I’m cutting back) seems to be having a positive effect on my outlook on life, my stress levels and ultimately my bank balance! I’m managing to pay a lot extra off my Credit Cards which is great, and I hope to have the wretched things paid off by the summer.

We are also packing our belongings into storage this summer, and as of the 4th July we are off on the road. We are going to get rid of our house and use Vicki’s mums house in Dundee as a base to tour Scotland and the Scottish Islands. This will be the first time I’ve been free from the shackles of rent & bills since I was 17, and it will be a welcome relief to live free for a couple of months. I’m really looking forward to the trip and the not having any responsibilities, and coupled with the not spending and paying off debt it will be a perfect solution to get rid of the lot. I’ve already started selling stuff on eBay to lighten the load. At the moment I feel like I don’t own my belongings, but they own me, and hang like a big anchor on my legs holding me in one place. Time to cut away the excess and simplify (which I will also blog about here).

The blog is getting hard to write at the moment, as I ten to stay home or do things for free, so spending isn’t really an issue unless something breaks (like the DVD remote). I’ll keep you all updated with the progress.

A Year Without Spending – Day 20 – Free Magazines thanks to a good friend!

Jan 28

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Mini Magazine & Mini World - Kindly Donated by a friend

Mini Magazine & Mini World - Kindly Donated by a friend

Today’s entry is a thank you to my friend Steven Almond as much as an update on the no spending front. Ste had been trying to sell these Mini magazine online, and when the buyer didn’t pay for the items he kindly drove them to my house and donated them to me. This has been a real life saver, as there are around 40 magazines of varying age from the Mini Magazine & Mini World varieties. I love Mini’s and always have. I’ve owned three of them, a 1275GT Clubman that competed in Lombard rallies, and 850cc Mini auto which was really cute, and a de-seamed & modified Mini 1000. The reading material donated will satisfy my Magazine lust for at least the next year if I limit myself to a new magazine from the pile each week.

This is a really good idea, and I’m going to suggest to friends even after the year without spending is up, to buy different magazines and trade them between each other. Magazines are a real expense for me as I like to buy Mini World & Mini Magazine, along with Land Rover magazine and Custom PC. It can end up costing a small fortune month on month. So thanks Mr Almond for passing on these magazines, it is really appreciated.

With regards to not spending, I’ve encountered various dilhemas over the past few days. Concert tickets being one of them. I love live music, always have done, and really enjoy going to live gigs. The bands I like are pretty obscure, which means if a favourite band is playing, I’ve got to go along incase it’s the last time I get to see them. Luckilly I racked up a few tickets last year for gigs this year which has tided me over nicely, however there are tons of gigs I want to buy tickets for, such as the summer festivals, which I’m trying my hardest to resist buying. More than the goods I’m not buying, the events I’m not attending are really killing me.

Oh well, I can live without extra gigs for a year, just like I can live without new magazines & books for a year. Lets just see what the rest of the year brings. I’m still waiting on the enlightenment that should surely come from not spending!!!

My mini on the left, our friend Scotts on the right

My mini on the left, our friend Scotts on the right